Just 1 year into pro career, UFC's Cynthia Calvillo looks for perfect 5-0 calendar year

From the outside, Cynthia Calvillo’s rise in professional MMA seems nothing short of meteoric. But, as it turns out, getting to where she is it took more patience that it looks.

Back in July, Calvillo (6-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) picked up a unanimous-decision win over Joanne Calderwood to earn her third octagon win. Since then, she’s already started talking title goals – naming some well-established targets in ex-champ Carla Esparza and contender Michelle Waterson as possible routes to get there.

It’s certainly been quite the ride for someone who not only hadn’t even stepped onto the octagon before March, but wasn’t even a professional MMA fighter until August of last year.

But as sudden as it may look, only Calvillo knows what it took to make the most out of the opportunities that came her way.

“I got injured right after I was finishing up with my amateur career,” Calvillo told MMAjunkie Radio. “I’ve trying to do my pro debut for the last three years. It just happens that I got injured, and an injury that kept happening over and over. So I couldn’t compete for about two-and-a-half years.

“During that time, I still kept working, and I knew that if I continued to put in the work, when the time came where I was 100 percent, I’d be ready to go.”

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Clearly, it paid off. After scoring a second-round TKO in her pro debut, at Global Knockout, the Team Alpha Male product needed only two more wins – one at GKO 8 and another one at LFA 1 – and seven months to stamp her octagon ticket.

After making a splash in her short-notice UFC debut, which ended in a first-round submission win over “The Ultimate Fighter 23” finalist Amanda Cooper, Calvillo went on to beat Pearl Gonzalez and Calderwood – all within a five-month period.

“It’s been an amazing ride,” Calvillo said. “I never though that I was going to get out there this rapidly. I was ready for it. I knew what I wanted. (But) I was just taking fight by fight. This has been an amazing, having the opportunities I’ve been getting.”

Now, the No. 12 fighter in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA strawweight rankings has her sights set on a December return to, hopefully, round out a perfect octagon 2017.

“I want to fight again before the end of the year for sure,” Calvillo said. “I’m already going nuts. I already want to fight. I would fight next week, if I could.”

While No. 5 ranked Esparza (12-4 MMA, 3-2 UFC) and honorable mention Waterson (14-5 MMA, 2-1 UFC) remain the targets, Calvillo said that with contracts yet to be signed, things can still change.

“I’m willing to fight either of them,” Calvillo said. “But if anybody else falls out and they need to call somebody to step in, I’m of course going to be the person they’re going to call, and I’m going to take the fight. So you never know. You never know who I’m going to fight next.”

To hear more from Calvillo, check out the video above.

And for more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

MMAjunkie Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go towww.mmajunkie.com/radio.